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Lesson 1: Introduction and Fundamental Project Managment Concepts

PMP®/CAPM® Test Taking Tips

Having gone through the relationships between Textbook 1, Textbook 2, and your studies, it is appropriate to spend a few moments considering how you will be able to best use this course to prepare for the certification exam(s). Throughout the online course commentary, the instructors will provide test taking tips for the PMP®/CAPM® exams. When possible, they will structure the lesson quizzes in the format of actual exam questions to test your understanding and to serve as practice for the exam. The questions on these quizzes carry much less weight than the exam questions and are meant to be more of a self-check.

PMP®/CAPM® Test Taking Tips

To pass the exams, you must know the five process groups, 10 knowledge areas, and 49 project management processes, and be able to sort them by category (see Table 1.2). To help you learn these, the instructors suggest that you make index cards for each of the five process groups, 10 knowledge areas, and 49 project management processes.

For the five process groups and 10 knowledge areas, write the name on the front of the index card and its definition on the back. On the back of these cards, you can also document the relationships between the process groups, knowledge areas, and the 49 processes as you are introduced to the processes throughout the course. For the 49 processes, start by writing the name on the front of the card, and leave the back of the card blank.

As you move through this course, the instructors will call out important inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs related to each process, and you can write those on the back of your cards as you go. Use these cards to test your knowledge regarding their definitions and the relationships. One way to do this is to examine the back side of the card, and see if you can determine which process it is. Another technique is to shuffle the process cards, and see if you can identify which process group they belong to.

Textbook 2 discusses inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs related to the project management processes, where the outputs of one process can become the inputs to another process.

Figure 1.1. Inputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs Related to the Project Management Processes

Inputs and outputs are documentable items or documents, such as organizational processes, policies and plans, deliverables, constraints and assumptions, reports, estimates, results, assessments, work break structures, and so on.

Tools and techniques are what you use or what you do to inputs to create outputs. Tools and techniques could include things like software, estimating systems, inspections, templates, skills and knowledge, facilitation techniques, and so on.

PMP®/CAPM® Test Taking Tips

When you approach an exam question, it is often helpful to identify the project management process that relates to the question. To do this, start by identifying (a) the process group, (b) the knowledge area, and (c) the process itself. You then need to think about the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for that specific process to help identify the answer. Is the question type related to (d) inputs/outputs, (e) tools and techniques, or (f) a definition?

Exam Questions

Exam questions might ask you to identify inputs, outputs, or tools and techniques from a list; for example:

Sample Question:

Which of the following is an input to the Control Schedule process?

  1. Project management software
  2. Resource optimization techniques
  3. Project management plan
  4. Trend analysis

PMP®/CAPM® Test Taking Tips

Concept Pairs: Throughout the lesson commentary, the instructors will present pairs of words that will help you understand important project management concepts and better match tools and techniques to the appropriate project management process.


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